Stop The Yellowstone Bison Killing

December 26, 1996

The mission of the National Park Service, in part, is to protect wildlife, not slaughter it.

Yet again this year the service will carry out the destruction of bison that wander out of Yellowstone National Park during winter--a practice that since 1975 has sacrificed some 1,500 bison. At particular risk is the entire northern herd of 600 animals.

The only hope to save the bison dissipated when a federal judge in Helena, Mont., ruled against environmental groups that sued to block the park service. And the only difference this year is that the bison will be trapped and sent to slaughterhouses--a reaction to public outrage last year when hundreds of bison were shot by veterinary sharpshooters as they left the park.

The killing is a concession to ranchers who live near the park and to the State of Montana, which sued on their behalf. They contend that the bison carry a disease--brucellosis--that can cause cattle to miscarry if they come in contact with the blood of infected, calving bison. It is, however, only a contention; there is no proof of any such connection, which the park service itself has conceded. And the risk would be small even if there were proof.

The concession ought to be to the bison, not the ranchers, especially considering the irony: The Yellowstone herd, the only free-roaming herd in the country, is descended from the remnants of the massive herds that were almost slaughtered to extinction in the 19th Century. It was one of the sorriest chapters in U.S. history. This chapter is just as sorry.